# Illustrating Characters and the Stories They Tell with Mary Jane Begin

Canonical URL: <https://www.creativelive.com/classes/illustrating-characters-and-the-stories-they-tell-mary-jane-begin>

## Overview

This class will teach you how to draw characters as a way to develop stories. Instructor Mary Jane Begin is an award-winning illustrator and author of children’s picture books, a Rhode Island School of Design graduate and professor in the Illustration Department. Mary Jane explains the importance of narrative in all creative fields, and how to develop them.

In this class she covers: 

- The key elements of story creation: working from the inside out, letting intuition flow, working with limitations
- Seeking out prompts to springboard story
- The elements of Character development

Mary Jane will give you a prompt to jump-start story and demonstrate how to develop it. You’ll learn about the fundamental human response to a particular character style, and how to make decisions that elicit story.

## Instructors

### Mary Jane Begin

As an award-winning illustrator and author of children’s picture books, a Rhode Island School of Design graduate and professor in the Illustration Department at RISD…Mary Jane feels INCREDIBLY lucky; she gets to do all the things that she loves to do.

## Pricing

**Tuition:** $49